By Sam Catanzaro
The Venice Neighborhood Council’s (VNC) Land Use and Planning Committee (LUPC) will consider a 98-unit housing project at the former City Yard on Thatcher Ave in the Oxford Triangle tomorrow, May 2 at 6:45 p.m. in Oakwood Recreation Center, 767 California Ave.
The applicants, Thomas Safran & Associates, want to redevelop the City-owned at 3233 Thatcher Avenue into 98 affordable rental units for seniors and families. The development would be a private-public partnership and would include multiple buildings ranging from one-three stories over a semi-terranean garage.
The Thatcher Maintenance Yard is one of 10 parcels of property owned by the City of Los Angeles that was set aside in 2016 for the construction of affordable and permanent supportive housing.
The Oxford Triangle Association, a group of Oxford Triangle residents and neighbors who oppose the development of any dense multi-family housing on the Thatcher Maintenance Yard has been successful in retaining more of a single-family look for the development after meeting with Thomas Safran & Associates (TSA) 11 times.
“TSA has worked closely with our community to modify the project to address various concerns with density, parking, height, traffic, access, security, property management and course of construction logistics,” the Oxford Triangle Association wrote in a letter to the Los Angeles Department of City Planning. “The project you see now is the direct result of the Oxford Triangle neighbors input and essentially evolved into the current status in a meaningful way due to that collaboration. The project is much improved as a result and much more compatible with the surrounding neighborhood, where we live and raise our families.”